A Sleeping Song
by Mushraluvr
Summary: In which Mushra makes an amazing discovery - a quiet song-bird hidden away for over 500 years. As he searches for his own lost friends, can the enterran help one boy find the family and song that the world has forgotten? Both boys will learn that the meaning of 'nakama' isn't so easily defined, nor so easily broken.


**Don't give me that look. I procrastinate. You Shinzo fans should know this by now. I don't want to clog up the top with AN, so I'll get on to the story. You should certainly read, though.**

**Crossing:** Vocaloid in the Shinzo universe

**Characters**: Mushra and Len Kagamine

**Inspiration:** Thinking about Re_Birthday (Kagamine Len) and the New Millennium Series (Kagamine Rin & Len) around one in the morning.

A Sleeping Song

_Klang!_

"Pheh, piece of junk. Can't believe you actually scared people away."

Mushra knew that he should feel bad for the pile of rusted, torn metal and frayed wires before him. But even as the motion sensor's red light faded into darkness, looking early like a closing eye, the enterran could not bring himself to feel sympathy. He had done this far too many times already and he was finding it quite tedious. It seemed that every "secret lab" he uncovered was crawling with ancient machines and robots that the humans left behind for security measures.

The first time he didn't want to kill the robot, thinking back to how King Nipper and Bolt and his gang had helped to protect Yakumo and revive him, Saago, and Kutall. But as the thing wouldn't seem to stop until it was no longer functional, he was left with no choice. Now, after what seemed like the millionth destroyed robot, Mushra didn't even need to tell himself that the pile of metal was too primitive to be sentient.

It was only right before the Enterran War that humans even began to grasp the process of giving technology actual sentience, though he only knew that from a conversation with such a robot during a visit to Mechano City in this time-line. That very same robot warned the enterran of the countless security measures set up in hidden labs across Enterra, granted, he told him this under the belief that the King wouldn't give out such secret locations willingly.

In the end, Mushra tried his best to explain the time-line change to the still-living Nipper, who took his word and handed the boy a stack of maps, wishing Mushra the best of luck in his search for clues about Yakumo's father and the original creation of enterrans.

However, forty-three labs into the hunt, and still there was little of use. Mushra had gathered as many papers as he could, not knowing what contents they held, hoping that he could find some sort of scholar in the older language of humans, or at least find someone who could read them. The orphaned enterran could barely read the more common languages on Enterra, let alone text from five-hundred years ago.

Even as he approached a large, metal doorway, he could only make out a few symbols that seemed similar to what he could read. Based on their position, and the red 'X' next to the word, he guessed that the word was "RESTRICTED". Ignoring this, he shoved his staff into a small crevice and levered the door open. It blared a buzzing sound that made it seem as if the door were displeased upon being opened in such a manner, but as it was one of the more mild warning buzzes that Mushra had come to know, he barely noticed as he shoved past and into the spacious, monitor-walled room.

"Well this is different."

Indeed. Mushra had grown so used to computers on desks or rooms filled with what looked to be operating tables, that he was surprised at something that actually resembled what one might think of when someone said "secret laboratory". Monitors and keyboards lined the walls and only a few tables sat in the middle of the room, each standing next to some sort of short tower. Set into the wall on the far end seemed to be a display – seven tubes behind a glass wall. Slowly, as not to set off anymore of the rundown security system, Mushra made his way over to this wall, but not because of the new discovery. A light above the fifth tube was blinking eerily in the dark room; a faint silhouette could be seen inside the tube.

"Yakumo?" No. That wouldn't be possible. Yakumo was dead, or at least no longer in her body. Isn't that why he was on journey in the first place? To find a way . . .

Mushra hadn't realized that he had touched one of the panels on the keyboard in front of the glass, at least not until the strange room in front of him lit up, revealing that one of the glass containers indeed held someone suspended inside. Beside him, a door attempted to slide open, but puttered slowly until the enterran shoved it open with his foot. It led into the room with the tubes, and he wasn't about to leave now.

"What on Enterra?"

As Mushra approached the container, he couldn't help but to stare. Inside was a young boy, possibly twelve to fifteen in human years. His hair was a vibrant golden blonde, his bangs resembling a star or a bunch of bananas. He had the number '02' tattooed to his left arm and wore strange clothes, even for humans: a shirt that looked like a middle-school boy's summer attire with a yellow tie that was too long for him and sleeves and shoes that resembled speakers that Mushra had seen at a recent festival in a larger city.

Mushra snapped out of his trance, realizing that _'Holy crap! There is a __person__ in there!'_ They were far too human-like to be even a modern robot and as this was one of the older labs, Mushra wondered if enterrans had even been thought of at the time. It could be possible that he was looking at a human in suspended animation, just like Yakumo was only a few years ago.

Excited, the fire-enterran rushed to the panel in front of the tube and searched for anything that looked like the right button to push. He didn't find a button, but he did find a lever. As he didn't know what he was doing anyways, he saw no more harm in pulling it than in pushing random buttons, so he did. From a speaker above the keys, something clicked and whirred into life.

"_Kagamine Len. Shutoku suru_?" A female voice droned. Mushra was quite startled and couldn't respond. After a moment of him staring in curiosity, the voice repeated itself. "_Shutoku suru_?"

"Uh, hi?" Mushra greeted, wondering if the voice could understand him. He certainly couldn't understand her.

"_Kakuninshi ta. Zerosuri kenmei kaihou shimasu._"

"Um, okay?" Before Mushra could search the keyboard for some sort of magical translate button, something thudded against the glass above him.

Looking up, he saw that the boy behind the glass had his fist against the container, his body ever so slowly being lowered to the ground by whatever force was keeping it suspended in the air. His feet touched the ground, and ever-so-ungracefully, the blonde boy stumbled backwards into the glass behind him with a clear 'thunk'. His eyes flew open in surprise, their blue depths scanning the room quickly before landing on Mushra. The enterran would have found it funny if he weren't wondering if the mysterious boy was okay.

The two stared at each other for a moment, water and sky taking in each other's depths with open curiosity as the younger of the two seemed to gather his bearings. He finally opened his mouth, but when no sound was produced, he grasped at his throat desperately. It seemed that he tried to scream, but to his obvious distress, not a sound was made. He slumped his shoulders and sat down in the contained, ignoring Mushra until the older boy tapped on the glass to get his attention.

"Hey do you need help?" Mushra wasn't about to leave him there, but perhaps it would be better to ask before he started pushing buttons and breaking glass.

The boy looked up at him, wide eyes darting around the abandoned lab, to the control panel, and back to the enterran. His stare seemed to go blank for a moment, as if he were thinking hard about something, before he met eyes and nodded his head vigorously, seeming now very uncomfortable in the container.

"Okay, what do I do?"

* * *

After what seemed like the longest series of numbers, typed out by Mushra as the boy motioned his uncertain fingers in the right directions, a friendly beep sounded and some machine beneath them whirred to life, lowering the glass around the boy. Eager to be free, he jumped off the platform, his legs surprisingly nimble for one who had been sleeping so long, and made his way to the keyboard and began typing at an amazing speed. Something else beeped and the woman's voice said something, but Mushra didn't catch it, as the boy had given the machine a denting kick that drowned her out before she shut off completely.

Surprised, Mushra kept quiet as the boy left the small room and began a desperate hunt through the lab, typing on whatever computers still worked and rummaging through papers, seeming to read them in their entirety before putting them back down. Mushra watched this for a moment before moving to help him, picking up anything that was already looked through and storing them away in his backpack in case that had anything to do with what he was looking for on his quest.

It seemed that neither of the boys found what the blonde was looking for as, in defeat, the boy slumped against one of the tables in the middle of the room and stared angrily at floor. When Mushra approached, the enterran noticed the glimmer of unshed tears in his eyes. And focused his attention on something else, not wanting to embarrass the guy. He might ask a girl why she was crying, but Mushra knew that with guys, it was normally a matter of pride if someone caught you shedding tears.

"So, um, you can't talk?" he asked, trying to sound casual as he looked around the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the boy shake his head 'no', before holding out a piece of paper covered in strange, complicated characters, ones similar to some of the papers he had found in other labs. Mushra took it, noting that the boy pointed out a small group of symbols at the top that were bigger than the rest, but Mushra couldn't make them out if he wanted to. At least with the 'restricted' sign above the door, he could recognize forms of some enterran letters.

"Uh, I can't read this. We're probably five-hundred or more years from your time. I don't know what these characters are." He didn't know why he felt ashamed about this. He had never felt bad about his lack of reading before, and this was something he had never even learned. Maybe he just felt bad for the communication barrier. "But, uh, you can understand me?"

The boy nodded, when some idea suddenly seemed to strike him. He jumped up and grabbed Mushra by one shoulder, using his other hand to motion for the enterran to speak.

"You want me to talk? What do you want me to say?"

To Mushra's surprise, the boy's eyes seemed to take on the appearance of monitors for a moment before he opened his mouth and said. "You, talk." However, he said it in Mushra's own voice, though it sounded a bit choppy and was oddly enunciated.

"Woah! How'd you do that?"

The boy smiled, seeming to be glad to get at least some words out of his mouth, his eyes taking on that odd form again, as if they were collecting data.

"You talk. –," he motioned to himself earnestly, hand on his chest, as if to say that his gesture were part of his sentence, "talk."

"Oh, you can record voices? So you're a robot? You look pretty advanced for this lab."

The boy shook head and took a moment to rearrange Mushra's syllables. "N-ot robot. Voi-ka-lll-oi-d."

"Voikaloid? What's that?" It felt odd talking to someone with a robotic version of his voice, but he wouldn't point it out to the otherwise mute boy.

The blonde wrinkled his nose at the question, reminding Mushra too much of Binka for a moment, and made his way over to one of the computers. He pulled something up on the screen, a block of text with a picture of a blue-twintailed-hair girl. She wore a similar outfit to the boy's, at least in the odd style of it and had a number '01' on her upper arm. A woman's voice came from one of the speakers as more images popped up along the screen.

"Vocaloid: Originally a singing synthesizer software developed for Crypton Future Media, it now refers to seven advanced androids under the care and management of Crypton. These Vocaloids are created as performers and ambassadors, to bridge the gap between cultures through obtaining a world-wide celebrity status.

"The creation of androids to accompany the Vocaloid 3 production is underway, while the original seven have been moved to a lab in America to have their English voice banks finalized."

The recording of the blue-haired girl appeared on screen, dancing and mouthing the words to some song with a smile on her face.

"Miku Hatsune – The First Sound of the Future. Although she was not the first in the Vocaloid software, her popularity in both Japan and the States made her the first candidate for the android project that Crypton sponsored. "

The video faded to black for a moment before the blonde boy and girl that looked similar appeared on the screen. The two were sitting at a table with a scientist, laughing about something that had been said.

"Kagamine Rin and Len – The Mirror Sound. These two 'siblings' share a voice provider, but are quite popular all the same. Due to their popularity and design similarities, they were next, after Miku, to have their androids created."

The screen faded again and this time a blue-haired man was singing alongside a brunette woman dressed in red, but before Mushra could learn their names, the boy closed out of the screen. He turned to Mushra, eyes roaming the empty containers slowly before looking at the enterran, and put a hand to his chest.

"Len Kagamine," he said, though it was in the same voice as the woman's. He seemed mildly irritated by this but waited for Mushra's response.

"That's your name? Len? Len Kagamine?" He would have stuck with Len, but he thought that perhaps it would be nice if the boy could say his own name in a male's voice. "And you're one of those 'Vocaloids'?" Len nodded to both of these. Mushra smiled and offered a hand. "I'm Mushra, an enterran. Though, I don't think we were around when you were made."

He took Mushra's hand , but shook his head. "N-o. What's an enterran, Mushra?" Len looked up at him with curiosity, scanning the older boy for any differences among them.

"Eh, that's hard to explain. I'm not all that great at science. I'm actually looking for clues in this lab, well, many labs."

Len was quiet for a moment, seeming to think about something while he took in Mushra's words. After a long moment, he looked up and answered, "I'm looking for _Rin Kagamine_." He sounded very much like an answering machine, with the mixing of Mushra's words and Rin's name in the woman's voice.

"Rin Kagamine? Is she your sister?"

Len nodded. "I think that she is in one of those labs."

Mushra felt bad for the boy, wondering what it would be like to wake up with your family gone. Yakumo had been the same way, waking up with only her father's voice to guide her. It must have been lonely.

"Hey, tell ya what. I have a map of a good deal of labs, and this one was on it. Maybe she's in one of the ones I haven't been to yet. You can come along with me and look if you want.

"I want to!" the boy shouted suddenly, looking up to Mushra as if he were a hero, well as if he _knew_ that the enterran was a hero. "T-ae-k me with you!"

"Eh, that's gonna take some getting used to," he admitted with an uneasy chuckle. Few people ever got to hear them yelling at themselves, and while it sounded slightly different than what Mushra could hear, enterrans had better hearing in general, and it made him feel weird.

"Your voice?"

"Yeah."

"I can -sound- de-for-re-nt," he said slowly, as he tried to piece together everything that he had picked up from Mushra and the woman. Len stood still as his eyes took on their monitor-like appearance again. When he was done he grinned. "The name'-s Len Kagamine!" While his voice still sounded similar to the enterran's, it was now a few pitches higher, enough for Mushra to not feel like he was talking to himself.

"Nice, kid. That's a neat trick. But what happened to your voice? You're supposed to sing, right?" From the sudden hurt in the boy's eyes, Mushra realized that, once again, he really needed to work on something that Saago called 'tact.' He had been getting better with it around Yakumo, but the impulsive enterran found that watching what he said or did was quite difficult. He felt better just to do, instead of think.

"I think that it is with Rin and o-th-er Vocaloids." There seemed to be a desperation in his eyes, but Mushra couldn't tell if it was for his missing voice or his missing family.

Regardless, Mushra felt for the kid. The closest thing to a family that the enterran had ever had were his friends, and now that they were gone, he found that he constantly missed them and the moments they shared, even the ones that got on his nerves. He had been travelling alone for so long now, searching for answers, but always keeping an eye and a ear open for his friends, hoping that they could see each other again and be the crazy family that they were.

"Hey, help me gather up some papers and we can get out of here. We can head back to the town and get a hotel and a bite to eat. Do you eat?" Len nodded vigorously and set to work on gathering papers, seeming more and more childlike as he hurried around the room with a growing smile.

Mushra couldn't suppress his own smile as he watched his new friend bustle about. Len reminded him of his first meeting with Binka. He hadn't known it at the time, but befriending that little human girl had been the start of not only a new adventure, but a new family as well. A small part of him wondered if this meeting would be the same.

* * *

**So, yeah, I know I should be working on other things, like stories and getting a job, but inspiration for this hit and I had to write. At first I didn't think that anyone would read, but then I realized that I didn't care. :P**

**I do have plans for writing the Light of Shinzo. It's not all that popular, but it's still something close to my heart. I didn't want to say anything, but I plan on re-writing. I will only be replacing chapters. As silly as it sounds, I want the date on the story to stay before the deviantart group. I know it looks petty, but I want others to know that the name was mine first. Just because I've grown up, doesn't mean I can't be childish from time to time.**

**Um, regardless, this came from me thinking about the idea that if we had the technology, Crypton would totally make real Vocaloids and how amazing that would be. And as Shinzo is in the future, I thought, why not. Let's have my two favorite bishies/shotas meet. That would be fun.**

**Don't know if I'll continue this or not. If I do, it will either have one or two more chapters, or a few small chapters followed by a big one. It depends on what mood of the story I want this to be.**

**Regardless, sorry for not writing on what I promised to write on, but I hope you enjoy this all the same. If I do write other things, it will probably be for a new series that I've fallen in love with, ****Blood Lad****. You should check it out, especially if you like ****Soul Eater****. The main character is a vampire, but one of the most awesome vampires ever, which says something as I normally hate stories with vampires.**

**So message me, review, do whatever you like.**

**~Mushraluvr**


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